Calm After The Storm
Forever & AlwaysWe often think of the 'calm before the storm', but rarely do we recognize or even witness the 'calm after the storm'. This sunset occurred less than an hour after a severe storm, near Otter Falls, MB, that brought down a hundred trees near a cabin we had rented. The clouds became soft like cotton balls (mammatus clouds) and the sky was at peace.
With the sand sliding between our toes, and walking hand in hand, there was no thoughts of #tweets, #likes or #snapchats.
I was fortunate enough to be reminded by a friend today of something I already knew, but had never quite heard stated so perfectly before.
We have all heard the term ‘Life Is Too Short’ and it’s a damn good saying to live by in most situations. We can let too many things get to us too easily in relationships, our careers, driving the car in rush hour, when experiencing attitude from a total stranger while we are shopping, or on a simple phone call about our cable bill. Why do we really care?
Let’s say you have bought a book and have started reading it. You find yourself on the 20th page and it is progressively getting worse. You have two simple choices.
What bad book are you experiencing in your life, your career, your relationships, or anywhere else?
Put the book down and move on… life is too short for a bad book!
Constant Contact versus Aweber
If you are in business, run a website, blog, or are just thinking of building an email list, then no doubt you are thinking of emailing many people on an ongoing basis. If you aren’t using a service that specializes in email marketing, then you are losing out on increased sales, your valuable time and ultimately money. If you are still sending emails via BCC (Blind Carbon Copy), get with the times my friend as you are not only NOT personalizing your emails, you are potentially opening yourself or your company up for spam complaints and potential legal issues.
On to the task at hand comparing two of the world’s most premier online email marketing services, often referred to as auto responders. I have aimed to make this as impartial as possible, and ask that users of either services, or other competitive products, comment as to their thoughts and experiences.
Here is a side by side comparison of features & costs for their base service:
Last Updated March 7th, 2015
| Constant Contact | Aweber | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free Trial | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cost Per Month | Tiered Pricing
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Tiered Pricing
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| Email Newsletters | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deliverability | 98% | 99% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Support | Free Phone, Email & Chat | Free Phone, Email & Chat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Auto Responders | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Email Templates | 400+ Templates | 600+ Templates | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Affiliate Program | Commission Junction | Aweber’s Own | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website Integration | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Image Hosting | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracking | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spam Check | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Surveys | Yes | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| User Community | Yes | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Blog Newsletter | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Native Shopping Cart Integration | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| API | Yes | Yes |
Both are great services. I have used both in the past, and feel you would be well served by either. Having said that, I am only currently affiliated with Aweber. If you aren’t currently an Aweber user, and are price conscious (obvious price difference), you an can try a free 1 month trial of the service by clicking on my banner below to get to the Aweber landing page.
Cheers,
Reference: Used senderscore.org for Aweber’s deliver-ability rate on 03-07-2015. Used ConstantContact stated deliver-ability rate off their site on the same date.
Recently, during the heavy vacation period of august I sent an email blast to my list. Not surprising at all, about 30% of the email messages came back with the standard: Mrs. Jane Smith is out of the office. I will be out of the office starting 20/08/2008 and will not return until 02/09/2008 If you need immediate assistance blah, blah, blah… Now, traditionally we could use this as an excuse to justify not working as hard during holiday periods, and say, “What’s the point! Half the people are gone to the lake. I will go hard as soon as people get back to work in September!” Just like 90% of other marketers and sales people. Or Start viewing the out of office message or vacation alert email as a gift of information. After all, you know exactly when your client, customer or prospect is returning to the office. In fact, you could easily diarize to give this person a few days to get back and caught up, then call or email them when they are still on cloud nine from their vacation. Be one of the first people to call or email them, and ask how their holidays went. You might just be pleased with the response, and valuable insights you get.
Warning: Skype is Addictive but there are NO EMERGENCY calls with Skype, it is not a replacement for your ordinary telephone and can’t be used for emergency calling.
I have been using Skype almost since the beginning and although I love Skype and recommend it to almost everyone, there are a few things I wish I knew before using their many different services. Skype isn’t just for calling your friends for free over the computer anymore; it is a virtual gold mine alternative to using regular landlines, long distance, voicemail and more.
Update Jan 2010: My parents who are in their 60’s are now using unlimited long distance from Skype while they travel for several months (they were shocked that it only costs $2.95/month in North America!)…
I am going to summarize for you what Skype is capable of via features and hopefully point you in the right direction to save you time, money & headaches. I will leave out and assume you know that you can talk, instant message & video chat with anyone in the world for free, as long as both computers have downloaded the free version of Skype.
Skype Phone Number (SkypeIn): An online number is perfect if you have friends, family or business colleagues who don’t use Skype. Anyone can dial your online number from any phone or cell phone and hey presto, your Skype rings and you pick up the call – wherever you are in the world.
Skype Voicemail: People leave you messages when you’re unavailable. Personalize your voicemail greeting. Store your messages and listen later. Pick up your voicemails anywhere in the world. Voicemail is the simple solution to never missing a call. Your unanswered calls are sent to voicemail and you can listen to messages when you want, wherever you are signed in to Skype.
Unlimited calls to landlines with Skype: Starting from 3$ unlimited long distance with in your country to about $13 per month anywhere in the world. You can make calls any time of day, any day of the week without the need for a long term contract. All subscriptions contain online numbers that let your friends, family or business contacts reach you directly on Skype. And with your Skype To Go number you can reach your friends and family abroad at great rates using any landline or mobile phone.
Skype Out: You can pay as you go if you don’t want a monthly commitment. Calling rates as low as .02 cents per minute. Skype to Go: Service is no longer available.
Skype for Business: Now you’re up and running, utilize features that can help your staff keep in touch while they’re out of the office, like voicemail and call forwarding. You can also buy and distribute calling credit amongst your team so they can call phones and cell phones to talk to people who don’t use Skype, and save money at the same time. Plus you can set up online numbers so clients, partners and potential new customers have a number they can call you on from any phone or mobile, and you pick up in Skype.
Small Business Pack: Get business phones, headsets and everything you’ll need for your business on Skype.
Use Skype for cheap SMS (.09 cents): Sending a text message directly from Skype is perfect when you want to quickly reach a friend or colleague. You can even group a bunch of people together and send them the same message with one click. You can send text messages to phones on any network, in any country.
Take texting to a whole new level whether you are in school, in business or in love!
Hope you found this helpful, and again if you think I have missed an important feature (or feel something is out of date) please let me know and I will update this posting. You can connect with me on Skype using my user name leeraito. I decline all connection requests on Skype unless you send me a message commenting on my blog, or where you found me online. I would recommend you do the same if contacted by anyone you would consider a stranger online!
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Cheers,
Lee
I was in the convenience store the other day and watched a lady buying Scratch & Win tickets. Her selection methodology, I am positive was based on pure emotion, color and the name on the scratch & win game itself.
Believe it or not this encounter got me thinking about sales conversion & statistics, so I made a mental note to check on this lady’s odds of getting lucky. I was amazed to find on the local lotteries website not only the odds of buying a winning ticket for each type of scratch & win game (e.g. 1 out of 3.51 or 1 out 4.96), but as well the amount of outstanding prizes and their dollar values. In other words, with some simple math, not only could you calculate which scratch & win tickets were more likely to pay out, but as well target which games still had the most money outstanding. This lady’s odds at 1:5 were much better than the regular 1 out of 6 Million Lotto 649, but unfortunately she chose a ticket that only had about 16 low value prizes left. In other words, she was statistically hooped.
So what does this have to do with sales conversions?
Well, just like the scratch & win ticket buyers selection methodology was skewed towards emotion, and not to the best statistical odds of winning. So too are many sales conversion efforts directed by emotion, gut & chance. This is not to say that luck and gut have no place in seeking sales conversions, as they often do, but if that’s the entire focus then you have lowered your odds of converting sales and like the lottery lady may be statistically hooped.
So in seeking sales conversions, there is a huge advantage for people willing to do a little research and ultimately track and test sales conversions.
Research your odds and set an acceptable ROI for your sales efforts, and this will force you to focus on activities that will provide a good Return on Investment and avoid those that don’t.
Online: As an example online, would you pay Google Adwords to send visitors to your page if it will cost you more than you can convert to sales? If you aren’t tracking and recording these numbers, how will you ever know the answer? Use Google Analytics or a similar service online to monitor and improve every aspect of your sales conversions. Who knows, maybe blue font on your page will pull 10% better than black…you just won’t know if you don’t track and test.
Offline: Regardless of what type of sales industry you are in, if you aren’t tracking your sales efforts, then how do you know your odds of converting sales. Quite simply you don’t and are similar to the lottery lady operating on gut feeling and emotion. If you excel and are a sales leader in your field, then of course this is all hogwash and doesn’t apply to you. Your experience far out weighs statistics. But, if you are part of the other 95% of sales people, then giving your self a statistical advantage is more than important. I would recommend tracking sales efforts offline with ACT or some other Customer Relationship Management program that can calculate conversions to sales.
Odds are odds, whether they are the unlikely odds of buying a winning Scratch & Win Lottery Ticket, or the odds of an internet visitor converting to a sale. With a little research and testing you can often give yourself an unfair advantage over your competition! Armed with the right information, odds are you’ll find yourself holding a winning ticket to better sales conversions.
Warning: This story is fictional. If this bears any similarity to sales people you may know or have seen it is purely coincidental!
Prospect: Glad you’re hear, I really need help with…
Interrupting Sales Person: I know what you need, we have this awesome product it would be great for you! It’s the number one product in its class, it wins awards every year, and all your competitors are using it!
Prospect: Umm… but what does it do for me?
Sales Person: It’s going to blow your socks off, it’s going to change the way you do business.
Prospect Blow Off: I just forgot, I have to get running to meet my partner for lunch, or I am officially toast. Call my assistant and reschedule next week and we will talk some more. Gotta run!
This may be a little exaggerated, but is always a good reminder when in a sales meeting, sales call or talking with your spouse to shut up and listen. If you don’t, you run the risk of never finding out what your prospect actually needs, so that you can have a snow balls chance in hell of selling a BENEFIT to your product or service. If your prospective client sees a strong benefit to doing business with you, they are ten times more likely to close. The only way any of this happens, sales or spouse related, is by listening first to find out what they truly need.
Most people, including spouses, don’t want the smoke & mirrors of feature after feature, accolade and awards. They want to converse and be heard, and for you to expertly help solve their problems or improve their life. OK, maybe that’s a stretch with you partner, but it’s sure true in sales.
Now… I’m going to shut up and listen!
OK, so these essential sales tools are a godsend for anyone and everyone in sales whether or not you are a dominant female Guerrilla Marketer or the leading male in your pack. These 4 applications of free Google services can have an immediate affect on your sales ability. If you have other uses you feel I have missed, please post your comments below.
If you’re in sales, you probably already use one or more of these Google Applications, but I dare say you should be using them all. If your not in sales, you’ll still want to check the power of these applications out!
Here they are:
1. Google Alerts – In sales, if you aren’t using Google alerts you aren’t on top of you competition, your best clients, and your ‘to die for’ prospects. Quite simply using Google Alerts allows you to monitor keywords that are important to your business. Monitor “ABC, Inc.” and Google will email you when any news, blogs, videos, pictures or more are posted amongst the billions of pages online. Be the first to call your contact and congratulate them, or strategically use the information to close your next deal. I think you get the point, but also consider monitoring keywords to keep tabs on your competition, your brand and anything else that is important to your success.
2. Google Finance http://www.finance.google.com – If you sell to companies that are listed on stock exchanges, or would like to, then Google Finance can help you identify key executives, peruse financial information & determine the viability of selling to your future corporate clients. The research that you can dig into is nothing short of amazing.
Note: If you are in a country other than the US of A, try changing the domain prefix for the country you are in and go to town. For example http://www.finance.google.com versus http://www.finance.google.ca
3. Google Maps – If you have to travel period and you haven’t yet invested in a portable GPS system, then Google Maps & Mobile Google Maps is the next best thing. Not only can you arrive on time, or follow turn by turn directions on your mobile phone for free, you can truly use Google Maps to increase sales for your business.
http://maps.google.com or http://www.google.com/mobile/
4. Google Search – It’s probably a pretty safe assumption that you have used Google to look up customers, potential prospects and other research essential to your sales process. Google Search can either be your best friend or your worst enemy, depending on whether you know the tips and trick of effective search. I am simply amazed when I discover someone has been using Google for years, and they can’t find what they are looking for. Hopefully you will never experience that again, by reading Google’s own short tutorials below:
Basic Search: http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=basics
Advanced Search: http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=advanced
My favourite search tip, is easier than breathing and uses quotations in the Google search box for highly targeting my searches. For example, let’s say you are searching for information on William Smith, you are about to experience a very long evening of sifting through 16 Million pages, and probably still won’t find what you are looking for. However, if you just narrowed your search to “William Smith” in Plymouth, MN, you are served 6000 pages and will probably find whom or what you are looking for much, much quicker.
In conclusion, knowledge is alpha sales power regardless of gender, and I hope you found these sales applications of everyday Google Services useful and applicable to your sales efforts. If you have even more uses of these or other Google Applications please leave a comment, or drop me a line, as I would love to hear about and use them.
Cheers,
Lee
This is basically a retort to what Lain Thomson subjectively reported on www.Vnunet.com. No beef with Lain, but HP is off their viral marketing rocker chair!
According to HP’s Social Computing Lab research into social actions of Internet users on such services like Facebook or YouTube, Viral Marketing may not be dead, but it barely has a pulse. They suspect that because users only interact with in two to three subgroups no matter how many friends they have, this may be the cause for many failed viral marketing campaigns.
Could it be true? Is Viral marketing dead?
There is some marketing executive crying, “It was really, really good, it was a mega wicked viral campaign that just didn’t spread!” Now HP has given every failed marketing campaign an excuse, as opposed to saying it was just a real bad viral marketing campaign, or it was snuffed out by something better.
Viral marketing is not dead, nor will it ever be.
On YouTube or Facebook, you have milliseconds to grab a user’s attention, and sometimes marketing executives mess up and miss their mark…period. They only thing that I can see that HP got partially right was that momentum has to be gained in the first day, and that’s logical for a campaign to have immediate and exponential growth.
Viral Marketing Lives On… and marketing executives everywhere will forever be in pursuit of those crazy ideas such as the One Red Paper Clip, the Milliondollar Homepage, Mentos & Diet Coke! Dan’s has a pretty good list of viral campaigns here to read upon: http://danzarrella.com/examples-of-viral-marketing-campaigns.html
For some strange reason when I was reading Seth’s latest blog post entitled ‘Sing It’, I was reminded of a saying I haven’t heard in a while, “Say it…don’t spray it!” I’ll get to that in a second, but really think you should take the time to read Sing It Please first! Its a great reminder to not just show up! In today’s business world and life period, showing up isn’t half the battle anymore, it is how passionately and well you sing when you arrive. Here is Seth’s post: Sing It Please
Back to my point, “Say it…don’t spray it!” reminds me of the quasi-polar opposite of the point Seth was making in his post. There are people who try too hard, and although they may be passionate, this isn’t how they are perceived in business meetings, sales appointments, musical performances or other interactions. Now don’t get me wrong, I would rather have a passionate loud talking occasional saliva sprayer in front of me any day, as opposed to someone who just shows up, lacks passion and goes through the motions.
Sometimes people love and are passionate about things they just aren’t really good at…YET! That’s why its always a good idea to seek feedback about your performances in life whether your are in sales, a professional presenter, musician or even dare say a blogger! If you have true passion, you will engage people even if you aren’t seething with raw talent!
So in Seth’s case he saw a band perform, and the singer just didn’t seem to have passion or gusto, so he reminded all of us to put some effort into our performances and ‘SING IT PLEASE’. Good point Seth, but what if the singer didn’t know he/she gave a less than stellar performance, because everyone was too busy clapping. Group think tends to take over and we tend to applaud a performer just for performing, and a speaker just for speaking, and so on. All it takes is one clap of the hands. As a performer, the best thing and worst thing is to hear is constructive criticism, but it sure does the trick.
I leave you with William Hung.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJRnPn41jqM&NR=1[/youtube]